Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for monitoring conditions of a rack of animal cages and in particular to monitoring rodent and other laboratory animal pathogens within the entirety of a ventilated caging system for the purposes of monitoring animal health.
Description of Related Art
Systems for providing air and removing exhaust from racks containing animal cages are known. U.S. Pat. No. 5,307,757 describes a ventilated animal rack and animal cage system including a forced air system in which positive air is supplied by an air inlet manifold. Air is removed from the cage by negative air pressure to an exhaust manifold. The exhausted air is treated with a laboratory air treatment system or portable HEPA filtered exhaust unit and is released to the atmosphere.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,308,660 describes an animal caging system including a self-sealing animal cage removably connected to an air supply and an exhaust. The self-sealing animal cage is supported by a rack. The self-sealing animal cage is sealed by an air inlet connection and an air outlet connection to the air supply and the exhaust connection. After the cages are removed from the air supply and the exhaust, the air inlet connection and the exhaust connection seals the cage to prevent air from entering or exiting the cage.
The air supply and exhaust are provided with an air delivery and exhaust apparatus side mounted to the rack. The air delivery and exhaust apparatus is integrated with high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters. The air delivery and exhaust apparatus operates in a positive pressure mode for pushing air into the cage or in a negative mode for withdrawing air from the cage. Air from the environment is HEPA filtered and is used as supply air in the air delivery apparatus and exhaust air from the exhaust apparatus is HEPA filtered before being emitted into the environment. The animal caging system provides isolation of the self-sealing animal cage and provides containment of airborne pathogens within the caging system.
Animals contained in the animal cages can have exposure to viruses, parasites and bacteria. Sentinel animals that have been placed in a cage environment have been removed from the environment and monitored to find out if rodent pathogen or other harmful organisms are present in that environment.
It is desirable to provide a method and system for monitoring conditions of the rack of animal cages, not requiring the use of sentinel animals.